Local sports therapist readies for Olympic experience of a lifetime

Matthew Hagman/For the Somerset ReporterPhysical therapist Edison Au uses the Graston Technique on his patient David Fields from Plainfield at the TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, Wednesday, January 20, 2010. Au will be on hand to treat athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.BRIDGEWATER — Warren Township resident Edison Au is about three weeks away from boarding a plane to Vancouver for the Winter Olympics.

But on a recent day at Somerset Medical Center’s Sports Performance and Rehabilitation Center inside TD Bank Park where the Patriots minor league baseball team plays, he’s still treating patients as usual and trying not to get too excited just yet.

He has a lot of other things on his mind and lots to take care of before leaving for Canada, like making arrangements for his patients and waiting for his British Columbia physical therapy license to clear, on top of his daily routine.

“The real time I prepare is usually when I’m on my flight, on the way there,” Au said. “There are just so many things that have to be done before then that I don’t want to get ahead of myself,”

During the Vancouver Games, the 36-year-old Somerset Medical Center physical therapist will be on what is known as the host medical team covering both the competitions and practice in figure skating, including the men’s short program, compulsory dance and free dance.

With about 16 other therapists and doctors, Au will be on hand to assist visiting medical teams in either routine therapy or emergencies for their athletes.

For visiting teams with fewer athletes that don’t have any therapists, Au might provide all the therapy.

Some of those athletes may go on to win medals.

“For me, to be able to help someone achieve their dreams is in a way helping me achieve my dreams of helping people,” Au said.

This isn’t Au’s first international sports competition — in 2008, for example, he served on the Canadian medical team for the Paralympic Games in Beijing — but it definitely is his biggest.

The selection process for earning a position at the Olympics is long one.

Au began two years ago by submitting online applications for a few sports, including hockey, speed skating and snowboarding, and had to turn in recommendations and submit to background and security checks.

It was his list of extensive experience that in large part got him the position, he said. That experience also allowed him to make important professional contacts.

“For medical, you wouldn’t be selected for moving further in the process unless you knew somebody in the system,” he said. “Your resume can say you’re at a certain level — and obviously you have to be at a certain level to be part of those events — but working as part of a team and doing what it takes to be part of a team is also what they’re looking at.”

By working previously with the venue coordinator in figure skating, he was able to show his experience in teamwork, Au said.

He also has had plenty of experience with sports in Canada. He was born in Hackensack, N.J., but spent about 18 years of his childhood in Toronto.

While studying life sciences at Queens University and physical therapy at the University of Toronto for his master’s degree, Au played rugby for both college teams.

Since then he has also served as a staff therapist for the University of Toronto’s rugby team and the Canada men’s national rugby team, and was head therapist for a U.S. club in the Rugby Super League. He has worked with athletes in competitions in Israel, Chile and Brazil, along with Canada and China.

Currently residing in Warren Township with his wife and 2-year-old daughter, Au has worked for Somerset Medical Center for about a year.

When he was interviewing for the Somerset job, Au was still in the process of applying for the Olympics position, according Paul Kolody, manager at the sports rehab center. That, unsurprisingly, gave him a leg up on the competition.

“It’s something where it’s a situation where we can definitely use that for marketing and PR,” said Kolody noting that it’s an honor, as well, for the sports and rehabilitation program.

“It’s not only a national honor. You’re going to be taking care of athletes potentially from all over the world. It’s not just the Canadians and Americans. It could be, for example, the Swiss. That’s something to be pretty proud of.

“Ed’s a hard worker. Ed is passionate about making sure people are feeling better. And I think that’s going to be something that the people he works with over there are really going to benefit from.”

The days at the Olympics — Feb. 11-27 — will be busy. After two days of accreditation and orientation, Au will put in seven- to nine-and-a-half-hour shifts each day. His family is staying home since there simply won’t be downtime.

The most stressful part, he said, will be all the media scrutiny since figure skating is such a high-profile sport. Decisions are usually made in the heat of the moment out by the ice, and he’s not keen on having the entire world analyzing his own moves providing treatment via television should a skater get hurt.

Judging by what one of his patients said to the Messenger-Gazette, Au won’t have to worry. David Fields, 50, of Plainfield, has been seeing Au after a second knee replacement surgery. Au has been helping him gain the strength back in his left knee.

After only four weeks since the surgery, Fields is already getting around on a bicycle.

“When I was in college, I played sports and interacted with a lot of trainers,” Fields said. “He’s one of the best specialists I’ve worked with.”

When Au is at the Olympics, he’ll be doing it all for free, as a volunteer. Most of his international work has also been gratis.

“Do the Olympic athletes get paid to go? It’s the experience of a lifetime that you’ve worked your whole life to get to, and you don’t expect to get paid,” Au said. “For me, it’s just to be there and share that experience with the athletes.”

So who is he rooting for, this New Jerseyan-turned-Torontonian-turned-New Jerseyan?